BRITONS need to be on constant alert as a growing army of fraudsters attack us on almost every front.

Our roads are no longer safe as “crash-for-cash” gangs stage an incredible 1,000 deliberate accidents every single week, then file bogus whiplash claims for tens of thousands of pounds. We are no longer secure in our homes either, as new technology puts us under constant assault through our laptops and mobiles, while unsolicited phone calls from fraudsters are an everyday menace.

Pension freedoms have only added to the danger, with scammers cheating thousands of people out of their lifetime savings in the first few months after the reforms were launched. No wonder three quarters of older people fear they will be the next person to get caught out by a scam, according to research by Santander. Organised gangs are driving crash-for-cash scams to new highs despite desperate attempts by insurers to fight back.

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LV= recently thwarted one crook, Balraj Singh Thumber, from Wolverhampton, who attempted to claim £250,000 for injury and vehicle damage after a bogus accident, but was rumbled and jailed for 12 months. The insurer also recently helped smash a fraud ring from Bradford, but too many crooks are getting away with their ill-gotten gains. Crash-for-cash hotspots include Birmingham, Luton, London, Manchester and Bradford, but be warned, fraudsters are now moving further afield to avoid suspicion.

Martin Milliner, claims director of LV=, says the UK is now the whiplash capital of the world. “Motorists pay some of the highest prices for insurance in Europe as a result, with those in the North-west bearing more of the burden than others.” Other whiplash fraudsters are more opportunistic. Insurer Aviva recently thwarted multiple bogus injury claims following a low-speed accident involving a double-decker “party bus” and a Ford Fiesta at a roundabout in Crewe.

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LV= recently thwarted a crook [not pictured] who attempted to claim £250,000 after a bogus accident

Organised gangs are driving crash-for-cash scams

The accident happened at just 10 miles per hour and caused a mere £70 worth of damage to the bus. The occupants all continued to the party without seeking medical attention, but then submitted an incredible 46 claims for whiplash totalling more than £250,000. Tom Gardiner, head of fraud at Aviva, says: “This claim highlights the outrageous scale of whiplash fraud being driven by the current system, which frankly has become a national disgrace.”

Aviva currently has over 4,000 suspect whiplash cases linked to organised crash-for-cash claims, up nearly a fifth last year. Honest motorists are paying the price with whiplash fraud adding £50 a year to the average insurance premium of £430, at a total annual cost of more than £1billion. Crash-for-cash is not just a financial threat. “No other form of insurance fraud puts the public at risk of serious injury,” Gardiner says.

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Technology puts us under constant assault through our laptops and mobiles

Chancellor George Osborne recently outlined proposals to stop the UK’s compensation culture, including scrapping payouts for minor whiplash claims, which make up 80 per cent of all motor injury claims. Gardiner says the reforms are urgently needed now to stop the gravy train for fraudsters. If you are in a suspicious accident try to avoid getting into a confrontation. Swap details in the usual way, but then inform your insurer about your suspicions.

Installing a dashcam may help expose false claims. Fraudsters are even more active online, but new research shows that one in three Britons unwittingly aids them. Too many are exposing themselves to cyber-fraud by using obvious personal passwords containing birthdays, maiden names and even their own addresses for online banking and other sites. Almost half admit to rarely or never changing our online passwords, according to the research by Experian.

Managing director Amir Goshtai says: “While most of us safeguard our homes from burglars we do not always take the same care to protect our possessions online.” Protect yourself by setting up secure, unique passwords for your online accounts. These should avoid whole words and use a mix of lower and upper case letters and numbers. Downloading internet security software, limiting the amount of personal information you reveal on social media, and shunning suspicious, unsolicited emails should help to protect you further.

When doing online banking or shopping, only use secure website addresses, which should be preceded by “https:” and a padlock symbol. Also, be particularly careful when sharing information on public wi-fi networks. Unsolicited phone calls, often from overseas callers, who typically claim to be from Microsoft warning you of a problem with your computer, are another scam to shun: simply hang up.

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Limiting the amount of personal information you reveal on social media should help protect you

Other “spoofing” scams involve gangs calling from numbers that appear to be genuine. Karen Tyler, head of fraud at Santander, says scams can be financially and emotionally devastating and new ones are emerging all the time: “Pension liberation scams have seen an increase since the new pension reforms came into effect in April last year.”

Thousands of older savers have already been caught out by con artists who lure them into liberating their pensions then reinvesting them in get-rich-quick schemes where the money is lost for good. You have one reliable ally in the endless fraud war: your own instincts. If a road accident seems suspicious, if emails looks fishy or an investment scheme appears too good to be true, these days it almost certainly is.